In New York, a young woman befriends her quirky roommate, who is trying to make it as an actor. While she watches her roommate attempt to accomplish her dreams, the woman reflects on her own life’s direction and what possibilities (or lack of) lie ahead.

Young woman recounts her childhood growing up in China in the 1970s and meeting the old maid that the village has ostracized, this encounter forever changes her.

A woman has an affair with a female lover who works in retouching models and imagines retouching the woman's face and body. The lover carries multiple selves inside of her, one of them a muscular, furry, aggressive man whose body hers (the lover's) sometimes resembles in bed.

A woman works retail and worries about how to make it as an actress in LA. To remedy her social and financial problems, she bonds with a teenage co-worker and dabbles in sex work, despite her nagging concerns.

A Chinese man adopts the daughter of a deceased close friend. As she turns 23, he is determined to find her a husband. When the man she marries is revealed to be gay, their marriage stirs outrage and dismay, upending traditional Chinese conservative perspectives on gender norms, marriage, and sexuality.

An unhappily married man is on his way to the wedding of a much happier couple. He no longer finds his wife attractive because of her weight loss, and thus endeavors into an affair with a larger woman, though she may have ulterior motives that he has not considered.

In the late 90s, a woman moves from New York to LA to teach part time at an art school. As she becomes disillusioned with the art world, she finds a dominant partner and turns to BDSM to ground herself in the empty landscape.

Though most of a prep school's students are away for the long weekend, a few boys stay behind at the dorms and are invited to dinner with a wealthy boy and his stepmother. At the dinner, the stepmother's attitude and appearance are just as alluring as the food, but the wealthy student acts strange and detached the whole evening.

In the 70s, a depressed, overweight, insecure, intellectual teenage girl stays for two weeks with a wealthy family her mother sews clothes for, the members of whom she considers confident and beautiful. She visits the historic house of her favorite novelist and entertains sexual fantasies about the boys. Years later, after becoming an academic, she reflects on the dynamics of gender and power.

A New Yorker working at a salon spends her time observing people she meets on the subway and at work. Though she meets a lot of people between washing hair and riding the subway to and from work, she avoids talking to them except for the rare occasions when she has to.